EMMA AND HER CRITICS

Jane Austen's Emma is a novel around which critics must tread lightly. The heroine is so complex and the plot is open to such a broad range of interpretation that imprecise criticism runs the risk of revealing more about the critic than about the novel. Still, the novel does have a plot and is peopled by sharply delineated characters, and so facts about the book may be asserted and a consensus of scholarly opinion may be arrived at.

The novel concerns the social milieu of a sympathetic but flawed young woman whose self-delusion regarding her flaws is gradually erased through a series of comic and ironic events. Emma Woodhouse, who begins the novel "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition" (Austen 1), nevertheless suffers from a dangerous propensity to stage manage others' affairs, most notably their engagements, for what she believes is their own good. Despite this, she is a sympathetic character. Her matchmaking leads only to near-disasters and her expressions of remorse following these gaffes are sincere and resolute.

The events which serve to refine Emma are witnessed and commented upon by Mr. Knightley, a man who serves at the start of the novel as a voice of reason and ends the novel as Emma's husband. Emma is transformed by Knightley, "one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse and the only one who told her of them" (Austen 3), and her eventual marriage to Knightley reflects an ability to embrace her flaws and

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fection in such a man" (Austen 312). A. Walton Litz assesses Emma as being a story in which the main character moves from "delusion to self-recognition" (Litz 369). Litz presents the protagonist as having a combination of the external delusions of Don Quixote and the internal delusions of Madame Bovary (Litz 370), unable to rectify her preconceived opinions about the romantic intent of others with the actual manifestations of romance. Emma is deluded about relationships, about the picture she paints of Harriet, about the intent of Frank Churchill during the game of charades. Mr. Knightley ushers Emma out of self-delusion, according to Litz. For Litz, Knightley "speaks . . . for Emma's heart, for the natural clarity which is the source of her charm" (Litz 373). When Emma concludes that she is the only suitable bride for Mr. Knightley, it is a vindication for Litz that Austen's "authority is vested in Mr. Knightley" (Litz 376). While critic Marilyn Butler, in her essay Emma, rejects the idea that Emma proceeds from self-delusion to self-knowledge, she points out that in Emma's relationship with Mr. Knightley her keenest insights are drawn out. Emma's own internal soliloquies are unreliable, her relationships with others (notab

Category: Literature - E